Your last sentence got me choked up and misty eyed as it so profoundly true. I once remember going through there after some very nasty rains. A trooper in his Ford (or Mercury) saw a speeder going southbound and he hit the median at a very good clip sending about three acres worth of mud into the air and gallons of water sloshing everywhere. He got his guy.

US 60 between Sikeston and Dexter used to be another horrible drive for both speeding and being plain boring.

I’ve noticed that the Maine State Police has taken some of its unmarked Crown Vics and fitted them with Grand Marquis front clips and rear panels to add to their undercover-ness. Not exactly All About That Brougham Life, but it’s still odd to see one on the shoulder with the strobes going. Not for much longer…

Reminiscent of the Florida Highway Patrol running quite a few 2004 Marauders back in the middle of the last decade. I think they had 30 or 40 of them at the highest point. Less brougham and more brawn, but still an unusual Panther variant to see with blue lights flashing!

I think that they still might have one or two in service, I know that the FHP is still running at least 1 9C1 special service Camaro that I still see on the road every once in while, and thats a 12 year old car!

I do like that they have switched to more Chargers, especially the newest ones with the neon tailights, they are super easy to spot from far away!

Unlikely is right. Last year during one of the times it started snowing during evening rush hour i was on 495 going back home and spotted a Maryland State trooper trying to pull people over in a three wheeled trike (aka 3 wheel motorcycle). Now there is snow accumulating, the temperature is freezing and folks are driving under the speed limit in stop and go traffic and this “genius” is trying to pull folks over while on a open vehicle.

A great example of how government– local, county, state, and Federal…wastes taxpayer money.

At one time, municipal Public Works fleet trucks were white, six-cylinder, manual transmission, vinyl floormat, skinny tire workhorses. City owned cars were typically white no-frills four door Mavericks with crank windows and AM radio. The City vehicles stayed the Yard each night, and had to be checked out each day for Official Use Only.

I live in far suburban Los Angeles. I routinely see my neighbors, who work for the Fire Department or Building Safety Department in the City of Los Angeles, who have a City owned car in their driveway every night. My local City government uses Toyota Prius fleet cars, not base model Chrysler Dodge Darts, Ford Focuses, or Chevy Cruzes as they should.

Nearby City of Buenaventura has top spec Ram 2500 Laramie 4×4 crew cabs with chrome wheels in Police livery…My own town fits high performance Eagle GT tires on its city owned Ford Ranger pickups used for traffic control and Police Cadet training patrols.

In short, it appears government fleet managers today have little supervision. They are spec’ing fleet vehicles as if they are spec’ing their own dream vehicles…and using other people’s money to do it.

I understand this reasoning, but I don’t imagine it holds up in practice. If I buy a new car, let’s say I get the mid level trim package, which is $2k more than the base model. When it comes time to sell my car 8 years and 100k miles later, my mid-level car will not be worth $2k more than the base level car. At that point, car value is based on its value as a transportation device, not its feature content.

Many of the fleets don’t keep them that long, though, so you can recoup more of the value if you trade earlier. Also, though the primary value of an older car is in its transportation ability, that doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) negate feature content. If I was buying an 8 year old car, I’d still pay more for a better-optioned model all other things being equal. Not $2K more but it could bump the value up by several hundred. Depending on how depreciation is accounted for, it could still be a sound financial decision, especially if the vehicles are sold individually on the open market rather than at auction or as mass trade-ins.

This car is, at newest, 24 years old. If it’s still in service, would you not agree it’s a great example of getting the most of the original investment? I would also wager not all cities and municipalities are ran like Los Angeles.

As mentioned one of the reasons you see higher spec vehicles in some govt fleet use is resale value.

Take home vehicles are usually for someone who is on call 24/7 but of course not always.

Many depts have found the having a fleet pool is a bad way to go, despite the fact that a dept will need more vehicles with a 1 man – 1 car policy they have found that their total costs are lower that way. If it is “your” car and you are responsible for its condition then you tend to take better care of it.

The reason you see Prius vehicles in so many gov’t fleets is because of the laws that require a govt agency to purchase “alternative fuel” vehicles as a certain percentage of their fleet or if they are required to purchase that alternative fuel vehicle if one is available. I have seen that since the Cmax was introduced some local fleets, are using them to replace their Prius. I know for example that one local govt started purchasing Explorers in the mid 00’s for the building dept because the had the flex fuel V6 and no other mid size SUV had such an option, since Ford didn’t offer a rubber mat vinyl seat version they got the lowest spec available.

The budget process can be another reason that you’ll see some high spec vehicles. The old saying use it or loose it is never more true than when talking gov’t budgets. You always use every penny in your budget and “show” that it was not enough, however you can, for fear that you will get your budget cut next year.

So you say you get $x to complete a project, you spend $x and make sure you only get the project 90% done so you can show you need more money next year. Yes it is sad and wasteful but those are the ingrained facts of a govt budget system in many areas.

If you want to see a waste of money, try the Chevy Volts used as GSA pool cars. A lot more money than a Prius for comparable real world fuel economy.

The Prius makes a lot of sense as a government fleet car. They’re competitively priced with the base model Avengers, Malibus and Fusions that are so common in municipal fleets (not to mention the GSA pool), but the fuel savings and resale value make them a better investment. The one real down side as a fleet car is that some repair work on them is best left to a Toyota dealer or an independent hybrid specialist rather than the city garage with all the dump trucks and P71s..

I wonder if there any boxy Panthers, boxy B bodies, or rear drive MOPAR M bodies still in service. In fact, I wonder if there are there any aero Panthers (1992-97) or bubble B Bodies (1991-96) still in service?

I highly doubt there are any boxes or M-bodies in front-line service, given that the newest of them would be about to turn 24 years old. However I don’t doubt that there are small towns that probably still run aero Vics or bubble Caprices. Heck, Raleigh, NC had a couple of ’97 aero cruisers still in their fleet as of 2011, and that’s a city of over 400,000 folks.

Re: CARMINE, Oddly it was watching old COPS episodes that reminded me of The Pittsburgh PD units. In the suburbs at the time, it was mostly “M ” body Mopars Plymouths though the thought of a Fifth Ave. Police car is cool. (I am a huge Broughamaphile!!)

In any case, it’s definitely not a police package vehicle. Although older Merc’s were available with a police package, they were plain models with few options like the Ford equivalents. This is either someone who made a replica police car from a Grand Marquis, or some small dept used an old used Grand Marquis to make a police car. The old 150 hp 5.0L would be pretty slow by todays standards, and the soggy suspension wouldn’t be so hot for police use.